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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 









































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































JACKANAPES 




























































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.JbstPMM T*>KUC(. 


“ HE BLEW A BLAST BOTH LOUD AND SHRILL.” 


JACKANAPES 



JULIANA HORATIA EWING 


Illustrated by 

JOSEPHINE BRUCE 



Boston 

Dana Estes & Company 
Publishers 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

MAY. 26 1902 

Copyright entry 

JYWw 7- b - / ft 01- 

CLASSWxXc. No. 

h ^ r q <\ 

COPY B. 


Copyright, iqo 2 
By Dana Estes & Company 


All rights reserved 


C£( Q l cat 
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JACKANAPES 


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i Published, June, iqo2 

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*«• 


Colonial Press 

Electrotype^ and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
Boston, U.S.A. 


CONTENTS ' 


PAGE 

CHAPTER 1 1 

“Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 

Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly gay.” 

CHAPTER II 19 

“ And he wandered away and away, 

With Nature, the dear old nurse.” 

CHAPTER III 23 

“ If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred, 

Redeem truth from his jawes.” 

# CHAPTER IV 50 

“ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man 
lay down his life for his friends.” 

CHAPTER V 60 

“Then, said he, ‘ I am going to my Father’s.’ ” 

CHAPTER VI 66 

“ Und so ist del* blaue Hiinmel grosser als jedes 
Gewolk darin, und dauerhafter dazu.” v 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

“He blew a blast both loud and shrill ” Frontispiece 


“Little Miss Jane Johnson and her particular 

FRIEND ’ CLARINDA 

“And at the pond the postman found them 

BOTH 

“‘You SHOULD SEE IT IN FAIR WEEK, SIR,’ SAID 

Jackanapes ” . 

“‘Jackanapes! God bless you! It’s my left 

LEG ’ ” 

“It IS A TWOPENNY TRUMPET, BOUGHT YEARS AGO 
IN THE VILLAGE FAIR 


11 

22 

38 

57 

69 



JACKANAPES 


CHAPTER I. 

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, 

Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly gay, 

The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, 

The morn the marshalling in arms — the day 
Battle’s magnificently stern array ! 

The thunder-clouds close o’er it, which when rent, 

The earth is covered thick with other clay, 

Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 

Rider and horse : — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent. 

Their praise is hymn’d by loftier harps than mine, 

Yet one would I select from that proud throng. 

to thee, to thousands, of whom each 

And one as all a ghastly gap did make 
In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach 
Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake ; 

The Archangel’s trump, not glory’s, must awake 
Those whom they thirst for. — Byron. 


l 


2 


JACKANAPES 


Two Donkeys and the Geese lived on the 
Green, and all other residents of any social 
standing lived in houses round it. The houses 
had no names. Everybody’s address was “ The 
Green,” but the Postman and the people of 
the place knew where each family lived. As 
to the rest of the world, what has one to 
do with the rest of the world, when he is 
safe at home on his own Goose Green ? More- 
over, if a stranger did come on any lawful 
business, he might ask his way at the shop. 

Most of the inhabitants were long-lived, early 
deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine) 
being exceptional ; and most of the old people 
were proud of their age, especially the sexton, 
who would be ninety -nine come Martinmas, 
and whose father remembered a man who had 
carried arrows, as a boy, for the battle of 
Flodden Field. The Grey Goose and the big 
Miss Jessamine were the only elderly persons 
who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss Jes- 


JACKANAPES 


3 


samine never mentioned any one’s age, or 
recalled the exact year in which anything had 
happened. She said that she had been taught 
that it was bad manners to do so “ in a mixed 
assembly.” 

The Grey Goose also avoided dates, but this 
was partly because her brain, though intel- 
ligent, was not mathematical, and computation 
was beyond her. She never got farther than 
“ last Michaelmas,” “ the Michaelmas before 
that,” and “ the Michaelmas before the Michael- 
mas before that.” After this her head, which 
was small, became confused, and she said, “ Ga, 
ga ! ” and changed the subject. 

But she remembered the little Miss Jessa- 
mine, the Miss Jessamine with the “ conspicu- 
ous ” hair. Her aunt, the big Miss Jessamine, 
said it was her only fault. The hair was clean, 
was abundant, was glossy, but do what you 
would with it, it never looked quite like other 
people’s. And at church, after Saturday night’s 


4 


JACKANAPES 


wash, it shone like the best brass fender after 
a spring cleaning. In short, it was conspicu- 
ous, which does not become a young woman 
— especially in church. 

Those were worrying times altogether, and 
the Green was used for strange purposes. A 
political meeting was held on it with the vil- 
lage cobbler in the chair, and a speaker who 
came by stage-coach from the town, where they 
had wrecked the bakers’ shops, and discussed 
the price of bread. He came a second time, 
by stage, but the people had heard something 
about him in the meanwhile, and they did not 
keep him on the Green. They took him to 
the pond and tried to make him swim, which 
he could not do, and the whole affair was 
very disturbing to all quiet and peaceable fowls. 
After which another man came, and preached 
sermons on the Green, and a great many people 
went to hear him ; for those were “ trying 
times,” and folk ran hither and thither for 


JACKANAPES 


comfort. And then what did they do but drill 
the ploughboys on the Green, to get them ready 
to fight the French, and teach them the goose- 
step ! However, that came to an end at last, 
for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and the 
ploughboys were sent back to the plough. 

Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those 
days, especially the naughty children, who were 
kept in order during the day by threats of, 
“Bony shall have you,” and who had night- 
mares about him in the dark. They thought 
he was an ogre in a cocked hat. The Grey 
Goose thought he was a fox, and that all the 
men of England were going out in red coats 
to hunt him. It was no use to argue the 
point, for she had a very small head, and 
when one idea got into it there was no room 
for another. 

Besides, the Grey Goose never saw Bony, 
nor did the children, which rather spoilt the 
terror of him, so that the Black Captain be- 


6 


JACKANAPES 


came more effective as a bogy with hardened 
offenders. The Grey Goose remembered his 
coming to the place perfectly. What he came 
for she did not pretend to know. It was all 
part and parcel of the war and bad times. He 
was called the Black Captain, partly because 
of himself, and partly because of his wonderful 
black mare. Strange stories were afloat of 
how far and how fast that mare could go, 
when her master’s hand was on her mane, 
and he whispered in her ear. Indeed, some 
people thought we might reckon ourselves very 
lucky if we were not out of the frying-pan 
into the fire, and had not got a certain well- 
known Gentleman of the Road to protect us 
against the French. But that, of course, made 
him none the less useful to the Johnsons’ 
Nurse, when the little Miss Johnsons were 
naughty. 

“ You leave off crying this minnit, Miss 
Jane, or I’ll give you right away to that hor- 


JACKANAPES 


7 


rid, wicked officer. Jemima ! just look out o’ 
the windy, if you please, and see if the Black 
Cap’n’s a-coming with his horse to carry away 
Miss Jane/’ 

And there, sure enough, the Black Captain 
strode by, with his sword clattering as if it 
did not know whose head to cut off first. But 
he did not call for Miss Jane that time. He 
went on to the Green, where he came so sud- 
denly upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting 
in a puddle on purpose, in his new nankeen 
skeleton suit, that the young gentleman 
thought judgment had overtaken him at last, 
and abandoned himself to the howlings of 
despair. His howls were redoubled when he 
was clutched from behind and swung over the 
Black Captain’s shoulder, but in five minutes 
his tears were stanched, and he was playing 
with the officer’s accoutrements. All of which 
the Grey Goose saw with her own eyes, and 
heard afterward that that bad boy had been 


JACKANAPES 


whining to go back to the Black Captain ever 
since, which showed how hardened he was, 
and that nobody but Bonaparte himself could 
be expected to do him any good. 

But those were “ trying times.” It was bad 
enough when the pickle of a large and re- 
spectable family cried for the Black Captain; 
when it came to the little Miss Jessamine 
crying for him, one felt that the sooner the 
French landed and had done with it the 
better. 

The big Miss Jessamine’s objection to him 
was that he was a soldier, and this prejudice 
was shared by all the Green. “ A soldier,” as 
the speaker from the town had observed, “ is a 
bloodthirsty, unsettled sort of a rascal, that the 
peaceable, lxome-loving, bread - winning citizen 
can never conscientiously look on as a brother, 
till he has beaten his sword into a ploughshare, 
and his spear into a pruning-hook.” 

On the other hand, there was some truth in 


JACKANAPES 


9 


what the Postman (an old soldier) said in reply ; 
that the sword has to cut a way for us out of 
many a scrape into which our bread-winners 
get us when they drive their ploughshares into 
fallows that don’t belong to them. Indeed, 
whilst our most peaceful citizens were prosper- 
ous chiefly by means of cotton, of sugar, and of 
the rise and fall of the money market (not to 
speak of such salable matters as opium, fire- 
arms, and “black ivory”), disturbances were 
apt to arise in India, Africa, and other out- 
landish parts, where the fathers of our domestic 
race were making fortunes for their families. 
And, for that matter, even on the Green, we 
did not wish the military to leave us in the 
lurch, so long as there was any fear that the 
French were coming . 1 

1 The political men declare war, and generally for commercial 
interests ; but, when the nation is thus embroiled with its neigh- 
bors, the soldier . . . draws the sword, at the command of his 
country. . . . One word as to thy comparison of military and 
commercial persons. What manner of men be they who have 


10 


JACKANAPES 


To let the Black Captain have little Miss 
Jessamine, however, was another matter. Her 
aunt would not hear of it ; and then, to crown 
all, it appeared that the Captain’s father did 
not think the young lady good enough for his 
son. Never was any affair more clearly brought 
to a conclusion. 

But those were “trying times;” and one 
moonlight night, when the Grey Goose was 
sound asleep upon one leg, the Green was 
rudely shaken under her by the thud of a 
horse’s feet. “ Ga, ga ! ” said she, putting 
down the other leg, and running away. 

By the time she returned to her place not a 
thing was to be seen or heard. The horse had 
passed like a shot. But next day there was 
hurrying and skurrying and cackling at a very 

supplied the Caffres with the firearms and ammunition to main- 
tain their savage and deplorable wars ? Assuredly they are not 
military. . . . Cease, then, if thou wouldst be counted among 
the just, to vilify soldiers. — W. Napier, Lieutenant-General, 
November, 1851. 



JbstfWHt ©KuC* 


“LITTLE MISS JANE JOHNSON AND HER 6 PARTICULAR 
FRIEND' CLARINDA.” 





























































































































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JACKANAPES 


11 


early hour, all about the white house with the 
black beams, where Miss Jessamine lived. And 
when the sun was so low, and the shadows so 
long on the grass, that the Grey Goose felt 
ready to run away at the sight of her own 
neck, little Miss Jane Johnson, and her “ par- 
ticular friend’' Clarinda, sat under the big oak- 
tree on the Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda’s 
little finger till she found that she could keep 
a secret, and then she told her in confidence 
that she had heard from Nurse and Jemima 
that Miss Jessamine’s niece had been a very 
naughty girl, and that that horrid, wicked offi- 
cer had come for her on his black horse, and 
carried her right away. 

“ Will she never come back ? ” asked Cla- 
rinda. 

“ Oh, no ! ” said Jane decidedly. “ Bony 
never brings people back.” 

“ Not never no more?” sobbed Clarinda, for 
she was weak-minded/ and could not bear to 


12 


JACKANAPES 


think that Bony never, never let naughty peo- 
ple go home again. 

Next day Jane heard more. 

“ He has taken her to a Green.” 

“ A Goose Green ? ” asked Clarinda. 

“ No. A Gretna Green. Don’t ask so many 
questions, child,” said Jane, 'who, having no 
more to tell, gave herself airs. 

Jane was wrong on one point. Miss Jessa- 
mine’s niece did come back, and she and 
her husband were forgiven. The Grey Goose 
remembered it well; it was Michaelmastide, 
the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas be- 
fore the Michaelmas — but ga, ga ! What 
does the date matter ? It was autumn, har- 
vest time, and everybody was so busy proph- 
esying and praying about the crops that the 
young couple wandered through the lanes, and 
got blackberries for Miss Jessamine’s celebrated 
crab and blackberry jam, and made guys of 
themselves with bryony wreaths, and not a soul 


JACKANAPES 


13 


troubled his head about them, except the chil- 
dren, and the Postman. The children dogged 
the Black Captain’s footsteps (his bubble repu- 
tation as an ogre having burst), clamoring for 
a ride on the black mare. And the Postman 
would go somewhat out of his postal way to 
catch the Captain’s dark eye, and show that 
he had not forgotten how to salute an 
officer. 

But they were “ trying times.” One after- 
noon the black mare was stepping gently up 
and down the grass, with her head at her mas- 
ter’s shoulder, and as many children crowded 
on to her silky back as if she had been an ele- 
phant in a menagerie ; and the next afternoon 
she carried him away, sword and sabretache 
clattering war music at her side, and the old 
Postman waiting for them rigid with salutation, 
at the four crossroads. 

War and bad times ! It was a hard winter, 
and the big Miss Jessamine and the little Miss 


14 


JACKANAPES 


Jessamine (but she was Mrs. Black-Captain now) 
lived very economically, that they might help 
their poorer neighbors. They neither enter- 
tained nor went into company, but the young 
lady always went up the village as far as the 
George and Dragon, for air and exercise, when 
the London mail 1 came in. 

One day (it was a day in the following June) 
it came in earlier than usual, and the young 
lady was not there to meet it. 

But a crowd soon gathered round the George 
and Dragon, gaping to see the mail coach 
dressed with flowers and oak-leaves, and the 
guard wearing a laurel wreath over and above 
his royal livery. The ribbons that decked the 


1 The mail-coach it was that distributed over the face of the 
land, like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heart-shaking news 
of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo. . . . The 
grandest chapter of our experience, within the whole mail-coach 
service, was on those occasions when we went down from London 
with the news of victory. Five years of life it was worth 
paying down for the privilege of an outside place. — De 
Quincey. 


JACKANAPES 


15 


horses were stained and flecked with the 
warmth and foam of the pace at which they 
had come, for they had pressed on with the 
news of victory. 

Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece 
under the oak-tree on the Green, when the 
Postman put a newspaper silently into her 
hand. Her niece turned quickly — 

“ Is there news ? ” 

“ Don’t agitate yourself, my dear,” said her 
aunt. “ I will read it aloud, and then we can 
enjoy it together ; a far more comfortable 
method, my love, than when you go up the 
village and come home out of breath, having 
snatched half the news as you run.” 

“ I am all attention, dear aunt,” said the 
little lady, clasping her hands tightly on 
her lap. 

Then Miss Jessamine read aloud — she was 
proud of her reading — and the old soldier 
stood at attention behind her, with such a 


16 


JACKANAPES 


blending of pride and pity on his face as it 
was strange to see : 

“Downing Street, June 22, 1815, 1 A. m.” 

“ That’s one in the morning,” gasped the 
Postman ; “ beg your pardon, mum.” 

But though he apologized, he could not re- 
frain from echoing here and there a weighty 
word. “ Glorious victory,” — “ Two hundred 
pieces of artillery,” — “ Immense quantity of 
ammunition,” — and so forth. 


“ The loss of the British army upon this occasion has 
unfortunately been most severe. It had not been possi- 
ble to make out a return of the killed and wounded 
when Major Percy left headquarters. The names of the 
officers killed and wounded, as far as they can be col- 
lected, are annexed. I have the honour — ” 

“ The list, aunt ! Read the list ! ” 

“ My love — my darling — let us go in 


and — ” 


JACKANAPES 


17 


“ No. Now ! now ! ” 

To one thing the supremely afflicted are 
entitled in their sorrow, — to be obeyed ; and 
yet it is the last kindness that people com- 
monly will do them. But Miss Jessamine did. 
Steadying her voice as best she might, she 
read on, and the old soldier stood bareheaded 
to hear that first roll of the dead at Waterloo, 
which began with the Duke of Brunswick and 
ended with Ensign Brown . 1 Five and thirty 
British captains fell asleep that day on the bed 
of honor, and the Black Captain slept among 
them. 

There are killed and wounded by war, of 
whom no returns reach Downing Street. 

Three days later the Captain’s wife had 
joined him, and Miss Jessamine was kneel- 

1 “ Brunswick’s fated chieftain ” fell at Quatre Bras, the day 
before Waterloo, but this first (very imperfect) list, as it appeared 
in the newspapers of the day, did begin with his name, and end 
with that of an Ensign Brown. 


18 


JACKANAPES 


ing by the cradle of their orphan son, a purple- 
red morsel of humanity, with conspicuously 
golden hair. 

“ Will he live, doctor ? ” 

“ Live ? God bless my soul, ma’am ! Look 
at him ! The young jackanapes ! ” 


CHAPTER II. 


And he wandered away and away, 

With Nature, the dear old nurse. 

— Longfellow. 

The Grey Goose remembered quite well the 
year that Jackanapes began to walk, for it 
was the year that the speckled hen for the 
first time in all her motherly life got out of 
patience when she was sitting. She had been 
rather proud of the eggs — they were unusually 
large — but she never felt quite comfortable 
on them ; and whether it was because she 
used to get cramp, and go off the nest, or 
because the season was bad, or what, she 
never could tell, but every egg was addled 
but one, and the one that did hatch gave her 
more trouble than any chick she had ever 
reared. 


19 


20 


JACKANAPES 


It was a line, downy, bright yellow little 
thing, but it had a monstrous big nose and 
feet, and such an ungainly walk as she knew 
no other instance of in her well-bred and high- 
stepping family. And as to behavior, it was 
not that it was either quarrelsome or moping, 
but simply unlike the rest. When the other 
chicks hopped and cheeped on the Green 
about their mother’s feet, this solitary yellow 
brat went waddling off on its own responsi- 
bility, and do or cluck what the speckled hen 
would, it went to play in the pond. 

It was off one day as usual, and the hen was 
fussing and fuming after it, when the Postman, 
going to deliver a letter at Miss Jessamine’s 
door, was nearly knocked over by the good 
lady herself, who, bursting out of the house 
with her cap just off and her bonnet just not 
on, fell into his arms, crying, — 

“Baby! Baby! Jackanapes! Jackanapes!” 

If the Postman loved anything on earth, he 


JACKANAPES 


21 


loved the Captain’s yellow-haired child, so 
propping Miss Jessamine against her own door- 
post, he followed the direction of her trembling 
fingers and made for the Green. 

Jackanapes had had the start of the Post- 
man by nearly ten minutes. The world — the 
round, green world with an oak-tree on it — 
was just becoming very interesting to him. 
He had tried vigorously, but ineffectually, to 
mount a passing pig the last time he was 
taken out walking ; but then he was encum- 
bered with a nurse. Now he was his own 
master, and might, by courage and energy, 
become the master of that delightful, downy, 
dumpy, yellow thing, that was bobbing along 
over the green grass in front of him. For- 
ward ! Charge ! He aimed well, and grabbed 
it, but only to feel the delicious downiness and 
dumpiness slipping through his fingers as he 
fell upon his face. “ Quawk ! ” said the yel- 
low thing, and wobbled off sideways. It was 


22 


JACKANAPES 


this oblique movement that enabled Jackanapes 
to come up with it, for it was bound for the 
pond, and therefore obliged to come back into 
line. He failed again from topheaviness, and 
his prey escaped sideways as before, and, as 
before, lost ground in getting back to the direct 
road to the pond. 

And at the pond the Postman found them 
both, one yellow thing rocking safely on the 
ripples that lie beyond duckweed, and the 
other washing his draggled frock with tears, 
because he too had tried to sit upon the pond 
and it wouldn’t hold him. 



“ AND AT THE POND THE POSTMAN FOUND THEM BOTH.” 












CHAPTER III. 


If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred, 
Redeem truth from his jawes ; if souldier, 

Chase brave employments with a naked sword 
Throughout the world. Fool not; for all may have, 

If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave. 

In brief, acquit thee bravely : play the man. 

Look not on pleasures as they come, but go. 

Defer not the least vertue : life’s poore span 
Make not an ell, by trifling in thy woe. 

If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains. 

If w r ell : the pain doth fade, the joy remains. 

— George Herbert. 

Young Mrs. Johnson, who was a mother of 
many, hardly knew which to pity more ; Miss 
Jessamine for having her little ways and her 
antimacassars rumpled by a young Jackanapes ; 
or the boy himself, for being brought up by an 
old maid. 


23 


24 


JACKANAPES 


Oddly enough, she would probably 1 have 
pitied neither, had Jackanapes been a girl. 
(One is so apt to think that what works 
smoothest works to the highest ends, having 
no patience for the results of friction.) That 
father in God, who bade the young men to be 
pure, and the maidens brave, greatly disturbed 
a member of his congregation, who thought 
that the great preacher had made a slip of the 
tongue. 

“ That the girls should have purity, and 
the boys courage, is what you would say, good 
father ? ” 

“ Nature has done that,” was the reply ; “ I 
meant what I said.” 

In good sooth, a young maid is all the better 
for learning some robuster virtues than maiden- 
liness, and not to move the antimacassars. 
And the robuster virtues require some fresh air 
and freedom. As, on the other hand, Jacka- 
napes (who had a boy’s full share of the little 


JACKANAPES 


25 


beast and the young monkey in his natural 
composition) was none the worse, at his tender 
years, for learning some maidenliness — so far 
as maidenliness means decency, pity, unselfish- 
ness, and pretty behavior. 

And it is due to him to say that he was an 
obedient boy, and a boy whose word could be 
depended on, long before his grandfather the 
General came to live at the Green. 

He was obedient; that is, he did what his 
great-aunt told him. But — oh dear ! oh dear! 
— the pranks he played, which it had never 
entered into her head to forbid ! 

It was when he had just been put into skeletons 
(frocks never suited him) that he became very 
friendly with Master Tony Johnson, a younger 
brother of the young gentleman who sat in the 
puddle on purpose. Tony was not enterprising, 
and Jackanapes led him by the nose. One 
summer’s evening they were out late, and Miss 
Jessamine was becoming anxious, when Jacka- 


26 


JACKANAPES 


napes presented himself with a ghastly face all 
besmirched with tears. He was unusually 
subdued. 

“ I’m afraid,” he sobbed ; “ if you please, I’m 
very much afraid that Tony Johnson’s dying in 
the churchyard.” 

Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be dis- 
tracted, when she smelt Jackanapes. 

“ You naughty, naughty boys ! Do you 
■mean to tell me that you’ve been smok- 
ing ? ” 

“Not pipes,” urged Jackanapes; “upon my 
honor, aunty, not pipes. Only cigars like Mr. 
Johnson’s ! and only made of brown paper with 
a very, very little tobacco from the shop inside 
them.” 

Whereupon Miss Jessamine sent a servant to 
the churchyard, who found Tony Johnson lying 
on a tombstone, very sick, and having ceased to 
entertain any hopes of his own recovery. 

If it could be possible that any “unpleasant- 


JACKANAPES 


27 


ness ” could arise between two such amiable 
neighbors as Miss Jessamine and Mrs. John- 
son — and if the still more incredible paradox 
can be that ladies may differ over a point on 
which they are agreed — that point was the 
admitted fact that Tony Johnson was “ deli- 
cate,” and the difference lay chiefly in this : 
Mrs. Johnson said that Tony was delicate — 
meaning that he was more finely strung, more 
sensitive, a properer subject for pampering and 
petting than Jackanapes, and that, consequently, 
Jackanapes was to blame for leading Tony into 
scrapes which resulted in his being chilled, 
frightened, or (most frequently) sick. But 
when Miss Jessamine said that Tony Johnson 
was delicate, she meant that he was more 
puling, less manly, and less healthily brought 
up than Jackanapes, who, when they got into 
mischief together, was certainly not to blame 
because his friend could not get wet, sit a kick- 
ing donkey, ride in the giddy-go-round, bear the 


28 


JACKANAPES 


noise of a cracker, or smoke brown paper with 
impunity, as he could. 

Not that there was ever the slightest quarrel 
between the ladies. It never even came near 
it, except the day after Tony had been so very 
sick with riding Bucephalus in the giddy-go- 
round. Mrs. Johnson had explained to Miss 
Jessamine that the reason Tony was so easily 
upset was the unusual sensitiveness (as a doctor 
had explained it to her) of the nervous centres 
in her family — “ Fiddlestick ! ” So Mrs. John- 
son understood Miss Jessamine to say, but it 
appeared that she only said “ Treaclestick ! ” 
which is quite another tiling, and of which 
Tony was undoubtedly fond. 

It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by 
riding on Bucephalus. Once a year the Goose 
Green became the scene of a carnival. First 
of all, carts and caravans were rumbling up all 
along, day and night. Jackanapes could hear 
them as he lay in bed, and could hardly sleep 


JACK AN A PES 


29 


for speculating what booths and whirligigs he 
should find fairly established, when he and his 
dog, Spitfire, went out after breakfast. As a 
matter of fact, he seldom had to wait so long 
for news of the Fair. The Postman knew 
the window out of which Jackanapes’ yellow 
head would come, and was ready with his 
report. 

“ Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the 
old place, but be careful o’ them seats, 'sir ; 
they’re rickettier than ever. Two sweets and a 
ginger-beer under the oak-tree, and the Flying 
Boats is just a-coming along the road.” 

No doubt it was partly because he had 
already suffered severely in the Flying Boats 
that Tony collapsed so quickly in the giddy-go- 
round. He only mounted Bucephalus (who 
was spotted, and had no tail) because Jacka- 
napes urged him, and held out the ingenious 
hope that the round-and-round feeling would 
very likely cure the up-and-down sensation. 


30 


JACKANAPES 


It did not, however, and Tony tumbled off 
during the first revolution. 

Jackanapes was not absolutely free from 
qualms, but having once mounted the Black 
Prince he stuck to him as a horseman should. 
During the first round he waved his hat, and 
observed with some concern that the Black 
Prince had lost an ear since last Fair; at the 
second, he looked a little pale, but sat upright, 
though somewhat unnecessarily rigid ; at the 
third round he shut his eyes. During the 
fourth his hat fell off, and he clasped his 
horse’s neck. By the fifth he had laid his 
yellow head against the Black Prince’s mane, 
and so clung anyhow till the hobby-horses 
stopped, when the proprietor assisted him to 
alight, and he sat down rather suddenly and 
said he had enjoyed it very much. 

The Grey Goose always ran away at the first 
approach of the caravans, and never came back 
to the Green till there was nothing left of the 


JACKANAPES 


31 


Fair but footmarks and oyster-shells. Running 
away was her pet principle ; the only system, 
she maintained, by which you can live long and 
easily, and lose nothing. If you run away 
when you see danger, you can come back when 
all is safe. Run quickly, return slowly, hold 
your head high, and gabble as loud as you can, 
and you’ll preserve the respect of the Goose 
Green to a peaceful old age. Why should you 
struggle and get hurt, if you can lower your 
head and swerve, and not lose a feather ? Why 
in the world should any one spoil the pleasure 
of life, or risk his skin, if he can help it ? 


“ ‘ What’s the use ? ’ 

Said the Goose.” 

Before answering which one might have to con- 
sider what world — which life — and whether 
his skin were a goose-skin ; but the Grey 
Goose’s head would never have held all 
that. 


32 


JACKANAPES 


Grass soon grows over footprints, and the 
village children took the oyster-shells to trim 
their gardens with; but the year after Tony 
rode Bucephalus there lingered another relic 
of Fair time, in which’ Jackanapes was deeply 
interested. “The Green” proper was origi- 
nally only part of a straggling common, which 
in its turn merged into some wilder waste land 
where Gypsies sometimes squatted if the author- 
ities would allow them, especially after the 
annual Fair. And it w r as after the Fair that 
Jackanapes, out rambling by himself, was 
knocked over by the Gypsy’s son riding the 
Gypsy’s red-haired pony at breakneck pace 
across the common. 

Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none 
the worse, except for being heels over head in 
love with the red-haired pony. What a rate he 
went at ! How he spurned the ground with his 
nimble feet ! How his red coat shone in the 
sunshine ! And what bright eyes peeped out 


JACKANAPES 


33 


of his dark forelock as it was blown by the 
wind ! 

The Gypsy boy had had a fright, and he was 
willing enough to reward Jackanapes for not 
having been hurt, by consenting to let him have 
a ride. 

“Do you mean to kill the little fine gentle- 
man, and swing us all on the gibbet, you ras- 
cal ?” screamed the Gypsy mother, who came 
up just as Jackanapes and the pony set off. 

“ He would get on,” replied her son. “ It’ll 
not kill him. He’lTfall on his yellow head, and 
it’s as tough as a cocoanut.” 

But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to 
the red-haired pony as he had stuck to the 
hobby-horse ; but, oh, how different the delight 
of this wild gallop with flesh and blood ! Just 
as his legs were beginning to feel as if he did 
not feel them, the Gypsy boy cried, “Lollo!” 
Round went the pony so unceremoniously that, 
with as little ceremony, Jackanapes clung to 


34 


JACKANAPES 


his neck, and he did not properly recover him- 
self before Lollo stopped with a jerk at the 
place where they had started. 

“ Is his name Lollo ? ” asked Jackanapes, his 
hand lingering in the wiry mane. 

“ Yes.” 

“ What does Lollo mean ? ” 

“ Red.” 

“ Is Lollo your pony ? ” 

“ No. My father’s.” And the Gypsy boy • 
led Lollo away. 

At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole 
away again to the common. This time he saw 
the Gypsy father, smoking a dirty pipe. 

“Lollo is your pony, isn’t he?” said Jacka- 
napes. 

“ Yes.” 

“ He’s a very nice one.” 

“ He’s a racer.” 

“ You don’t want to sell him, do you ? ” 

“ Fifteen pounds,” said the Gypsy father ; and 


JACKANAPES 


35 


Jackanapes sighed and went home again. That 
very afternoon he and Tony rode the two 
donkeys, and Tony managed to get thrown, 
and even Jackanapes’ donkey kicked. But it 
was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swift- 
ness and the dainty mischief of the red-haired 
pony. 

A few days later Miss Jessamine spoke very 
seriously to Jackanapes. She was a good deal 
agitated as she told him that his grandfather 
the General was coming to the Green, and that 
he must be on his very best behavior during 
the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off 
calling him Jackanapes and to get used to his 
baptismal name of Theodore before the day 
after to-morrow (when the General was due), 
it would have been satisfactory. But Miss 
Jessamine feared it would be impossible in 
practice, and she had scruples about it on prin- 
ciple. It would not seem quite truthful, al- 
though she had always most fully intended 


36 


JACKANAPES 


that he should be called Theodore when he had 
outgrown the ridiculous appropriateness of his 
nickname. The fact was that he had not out- 
grown it, but he must take care to remember 
who was meant when his grandfather said 
Theodore. 

Indeed, for that matter, he must take care all 
along. 

“ You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes,” said 
Miss Jessamine. 

“ Yes, aunt,” said Jackanapes, thinking of 
the hobby-horses. 

“ You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank 
God, I can tell your grandfather that. An 
obedient boy, an honorable boy, and a kind- 
hearted boy. But you are — in short, you are 
a boy, Jackanapes. And I hope” — added 
Miss Jessamine, desperate with the results of 
experience — “ that the General knows that 
boys will be boys.” 

What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes 


JACKANAPES 


37 


promised to guard against. He was to keep 
his clothes and his hands clean, to look over 
his catechism, not to put sticky things in his 
pockets, to keep that hair of his smooth — 
(“ It’s the wind that blows it, aunty,” said 
Jackanapes, — “ I’ll send by the coach for some 
bear’s grease,” said Miss Jessamine, tying a 
knot in her pocket-handkerchief) — not to burst 
in at the parlor door, not to talk at the top of 
his voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill, and 
to sit quite quiet during the sermon ; to be sure 
to say “ sir ” to the General, to be careful about 
rubbing his shoes on the door-mat, and to bring 
his lesson-books to his aunt at once that she 
might iron down the dogs’’ ears. The General 
arrived, and for the first day all went well, 
except that Jackanapes’ hair was as wild as 
usual, for the hairdresser had no bear’s 
grease left. He began to feel more at ease 
with his grandfather, and disposed to talk con- 
fidentially with him, as he did with the Post- 


38 


JACKANAPES 


man. All that the General felt it would take 
too long to tell, but the result was the same. 
He was disposed to talk confidentially with 
Jackanapes. 

“ Mons’ous pretty place, this,” he said, look- 
ing out of the lattice on to the Green, where the 
grass was vivid with sunset, and the shadows 
were long and peaceful. 

u You should see it in Fair week, sir,” said 
Jackanapes, shaking his yellow mop, and lean- 
ing back in his one of the two Chippendale 
armchairs in which they sat. 

“ A fine time that, eh ? ” said the General, 
with a twinkle in his left eye. (The other was 
glass.) 

Jackanapes shook his hair once more. “ I 
enjoyed this last one the best of all,” he said. 
“ I’d so much money.” 

“ By George, it’s not a common complaint in 
these bad times. How much had ye ? ” 

“ I’d two shillings. A new shilling aunty 



“ 4 YOU SHOULD SKE IT IN FAIR WEEK, SIR,’ SAII) 


JACKANAPES.” 































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































JACKANAPES 


39 


gave me, and elevenpence I had saved up, and 
a penny from the Postman — sir ! ” added Jack- 
anapes with a jerk, having forgotten it. 

“And how did ye spend it — sir?” inquired 
the General. 

Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the 
arms of his chair, and shut his eyes that he 
might count the more conscientiously. 

“ Watch-stand for aunty, threepence. Trum- 
pet for myself, twopence, that’s fivepence. Gin- 
ger nuts for Tony, twopence, and a mug with a 
grenadier on for the Postman, fourpence, that’s 
elevenpence. Shooting-gallery, a penny, that’s 
a shilling. Giddy-go-round, a penny, that’s one 
and a penny. Treating Tony, one and two- 
pence. Flying boats (Tony paid for himself), 
a penny, one and threepence. Shooting-gallery 
again, one and fourpence. Fat woman, a penny, 
one and fivepence. Giddy-go-round again, one 
and sixpence. Shooting-gallery, one and seven- 
pence. Treating Tony, and then he wouldn’t 


40 


JACKANAPES 


shoot, so I did, one and eightpence. Liv- 
ing skeleton, a penny — no, Tony treated me, 
the living skeleton doesn’t count. Skittles, 
a penny, one and ninepence. Mermaid (but 
when we got inside she was dead), a penny, 
one and tenpence. Theatre, a penny (Priscilla 
Partington, or the Green Lane Murder, A 
beautiful young lady, sir, with pink cheeks 
and a real pistol), that’s one and elevenpence. 
Ginger beer, a penny (I ivas so thirsty !), two 
shillings. And then the shooting-gallery man 
gave me a turn for nothing, because, he said, I 
was a real gentleman, and spent my money like 
a man.” 

“ So you do, sir, so you do ! ” cried the Gen- 
eral. “ Why, sir, you spend it like a prince. 
And now I suppose you’ve not got a penny in 
your pocket ? ” 

“ Yes, I have,” said Jackanapes. “ Two pen- 
nies. They are saving up.” And Jackanapes 
jingled them with his hand. 


JACKANAPES 


41 


“ You don’t want money except at fair times, 
I suppose ? ” said the General. 

Jackanapes shook his mop. 

“ If I could have as much as I want, I should 
know what to buy,” said he. 

“ And how much do you want, if you could 
get it ? ” 

“Wait a minute, sir, till I think what two- 
pence from fifteen pounds leaves. Two from 
nothing you can’t, but borrow twelve. Two 
from twelve, ten, and carry one. Please re- 
member ten, sir, when I ask you. One from 
nothing you can’t, borrow twenty. One from 
twenty, nineteen, and carry one. One from fif- 
teen, fourteen. Fourteen pounds nineteen and 
— what did T tell you to remember?” 

“Ten,” said the General. 

“ Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and ten- 
pence, then, is what I want,” said Jackanapes. 

“ Bless my soul, what for ? ” 

“ To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir. 


42 


JACKANAPES 


The Gypsy’s red-haired pony, sir. Oh, he is 
beautiful ! You should see his coat in the sun- 
shine ! You should see his mane ! You should 
see his tail ! Such little feet, sir, and they go 
like lightning ! Such a dear face, too, and eyes 
like a mouse ! But he’s a racer, and the Gypsy 
wants fifteen pounds for him.” 

“ If he’s a racer, you couldn’t ride him. 
Could you ? ” 

“ No — o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did 
the other day.” 

‘‘You did, did you? Well, I’m fond of rid- 
ing myself, and, if the beast is as good as you 
say, he might suit me.” 

“ You’re too tall for Lollo, I think,” said 
Jackanapes, measuring his grandfather with 
his eye. 

“ I can double up my legs, I suppose. We’ll 
have a look at him to-morrow.” 

“ Don’t you weigh a good deal ? ” asked 
Jackanapes. 


JACKANAPES 


43 


“ Chiefly waistcoats,” said the General, slap- 
ping the breast of his military frock-coat. 
“We’ll have the little racer on the Green 
the first thing in the morning. Glad you 
mentioned it, grandson. Glad you mentioned 
it.” 

The General was as good as his word. Next 
morning the Gypsy and Lollo, Miss Jessamine, 
Jackanapes and his grandfather and his dog 
Spitfire, were all gathered at one end of the 
Green in a group, which so aroused the inno- 
cent curiosity of Mrs. Johnson, as she saw it 
from one ' of her upper windows, that she and 
the children took their early promenade rather 
earlier than usual. The General talked to the 
Gypsy, and Jackanapes fondled Lollo’s mane, 
and did not know whether he should be more 
glad or miserable if his grandfather bought 
him. 

“ Jackanapes ! ” 

“ Yes, sir ! ” 


44 


JACKANAPES 


“ I’ve bought Lollo, but I believe you were 
right. He hardly stands high enough for me. 
If you can ride him to the other end of the 
Green, I’ll give him to you.” 

How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo’s back 
he never knew. He had just gathered up the 
reins when the Gypsy father took him by the 
arm . 

“If you want to make Lollo go fast, my 
little gentleman — ” 

“I can make him go!” said Jackanapes, 
and, drawing from his pocket the trumpet he 
had bought in the fair, he blew a blast both 
loud and shrill. 

Away went Lollo, and away went Jacka- 
napes’ hat. His golden hair flew out, an aure- 
ole from which his cheeks shone red and 
distended with trumpeting. Away went Spit- 
fire, mad with the rapture of the race, and the 
wind in his silky ears. Away went the geese, 
the cocks, the hens, and the whole family of 


JACKANAPES 


45 


Johnson. Lucy clung to her mamma, Jane 
saved Emily by the gathers of her gown, and 
Tony saved himself by a somersault. 

The Grey Goose was just returning when 
Jackanapes and Lollo rode back, Spitfire pant- 
ing behind. 

“ Good, my little gentleman, good ! ” said 
the Gypsy. “You were born to the saddle. 
You’ve the flat thigh, the strong knee, the wiry 
back, and the light caressing hand, all you want 
is to learn to whisper. Come here ! ” 

“ What was that dirty fellow talking about, 
grandson ? ” asked the General. 

“ I can’t tell you, sir. It’s a secret.” 

They were sitting in the window again, 
in the two Chippendale armchairs, the Gen- 
eral devouring every line of his grand- 
son s face, with strange spasms crossing his 
own. 

“ You must love your aunt very much, Jack- 
anapes ? ” 


46 


JACKANAPES 


“ I do, sir,” said Jackanapes, warmly. 

“ And whom do you love next best to your 
aunt ? ” 

The ties of blood were pressing very strongly 
on the General himself, and perhaps he thought 
of Lollo. But love is not bought in a day, 
even with fourteen pounds nineteen shillings 
and tenpence. Jackanapes answered quite 
readily, “ The Postman.” 

“ Why the Postman ? ” 

“ He knew my father,” said Jackanapes, 
“and he tells me about him, and about his 
black mare. My father was a soldier, a brave 
soldier. He died at Waterloo. When I grow 
up I want to be a soldier too.” 

“ So you shall, my boy. So you shall.” 

“ Thank you, grandfather. Aunty doesn’t 
want me to be a soldier for fear of being 
killed.” 

“ Bless my life ! Would she have you get 
into a feather bed and stay there ? Why, you 


JACKANAPES 


47 


might be killed by a thunderbolt, if you were a 
butter merchant ! ” 

“ So I might. I shall tell her so. What a 
funny fellow you are, sir ! I say, do you think 
my father knew the Gypsy’s secret ? The 
Postman says he used to whisper to his black 
mare.” 

“ Your father was taught to ride as a child, 
by one of those horsemen of the East who 
swoop and dart and wheel about a plain like 
swallows in autumn. Grandson ! Love me a 
little too. I can tell you more about your 
father than the Postman can.” 

“ I do love you,” said Jackanapes. “ Before 
you came I was frightened. I’d no notion you 
were so nice.” 

“Love me always, boy, whatever I do or 
leave undone. And — God help me — what- 
ever you do or leave undone, I’ll love you ! 
There shall never be a cloud between us for 
a day ; no, sir, not for an hour. We’re im- 


48 


JACKANAPES 


perfect enough, all of us, we needn’t be so 
bitter: and life is uncertain enough at its 
safest, we needn’t waste its opportunities. 
Look at me ! Here sit I, after a dozen battles 
and some of the worst climates in the world, 
and by yonder lycli gate lies your mother, who 
didn’t move five miles, I suppose, from 
your aunt’s apron strings — dead in her teens ; 
my golden-haired daughter, whom I never 
saw.” 

Jackanapes was terribly troubled. 

“ Don’t cry, grandfather,” he pleaded, his own 
blue eyes round with tears. “I will love you 
very much, and I will try to be very good. 
But I should like to be a soldier.” 

“ You shall, my boy, you shall. You’ve 
more claims for a commission than you know 
of. Cavalry, I suppose ; eh, ye young Jacka- 
napes ? Well, well ; if you live to be an honor 
to your country, this old heart shall grow 
young again with pride for you ; and if you die 


JACKANAPES 


49 


in the service of your country — God bless me, 
it can but break for ye ! ” 

And beating the region which he said was all 
waistcoats, as if they stifled him, the old man 
got up and strode out on to the Green. 


CHAPTER IV. 


“ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends.” — John xv. 13. 

Twenty and odd years later the Grey Goose 
was still alive, and in full possession of her 
faculties, such as they were. She lived slowly 
and carefully, and she lived long. So did Miss 
Jessamine ; but the General was dead. 

He had lived on the Green for many years, 
during which he and the Postman saluted each 
other with a punctiliousness that it almost 
drilled one to witness. He would have com- 
pletely spoiled Jackanapes if Miss Jessamine’s 
conscience would have let him ; otherwise he 
somewhat dragooned his neighbors, and was 
as positive about parish matters as a ratepayer 
about the army. A stormy-tempered, tender- 


50 


JACKANAPES 


51 


hearted soldier, irritable with the suffering of 
wounds of which he never spoke, whom all the 
village followed to his grave with tears. 

The General’s death was a great shock to 
Miss Jessamine, and her nephew stayed with 
her for some little time after the funeral. 
Then he was obliged to join his regiment, 
which was ordered abroad. 

One effect of the conquest which the Gen- 
eral had gained over' the affections of the vil- 
lage was a considerable abatement of the 
popular prejudice against “the military.” In- 
deed, the village was now somewhat impor- 
tantly represented in the army. There was 
the General himself, and the Postman, and the 
Black Captain’s tablet in the church, and Jack- 
anapes, and Tony Johnson, and a Trumpeter. 

Tony Johnson had no more natural taste for 
fighting than for riding, but he was as devoted 
as ever to Jackanapes, and that was how it 
came about that Mr. Johnson bought him a 


52 


JACKANAPES 


commission in the same cavalry regiment that 
the General’s grandson (whose commission had 
been given him by the Iron Duke) was in, and 
that he was quite content to be the butt of the 
mess where Jackanapes was the hero ; and that 
when Jackanapes wrote home to Miss Jessa- 
mine, Tony wrote with the same purpose to 
his mother ; namely, to demand her congratu- 
lations that they were on active service at last, 
and were ordered to the front. And he added 
a postscript to the effect that she could have 
no idea how popular Jackanapes was, nor how 
splendidly he rode the wonderful red charger 
whom he had named after his old friend Lollo. 

“ Sound retire ! ” 

A Boy Trumpeter, grave with the weight of 
responsibilities and accoutrements beyond his 
years, and stained, so that his own mother 
would not have known him, with the sweat 
and dust of battle, did as he was bid ; and then 


JACKANAPES 


53 


pushing his trumpet pettishly aside, adjusted 
his weary legs for the hundredth time to the 
horse which was a world too big for him, and 
muttering, “ ’Tain’t a pretty tune,” tried to see 
something of this, his first engagement, before 
it came to an end. 

Being literally in the thick of it, he could 
hardly have seen less or known less of what 
happened in that particular skirmish if he had 
been at home in England. For many good 
reasons; including dust and smoke, and that 
what attention he dared distract from his com- 
manding officer was pretty well absorbed by 
keeping his hard-mouthed troop-horse in hand, 
under pain of execration by his neighbors in 
the melee. By and by, when the newspapers 
came out, if he could get a look at one before 
it was thumbed to bits, he would learn that the 
enemy had appeared from ambush in over- 
whelming numbers, and that orders had been 
given to fall back, which was done slowly 


54 


JACKANAPES 


and in good order, the men fighting as they 
retired. 

Born and bred on the Goose Green, the 
youngest of Mr. Johnson’s gardener’s numer- 
ous offspring, the boy had given his family “ no 
peace ” till they let him “ go for a soldier ” with 
Master Tony and Master Jackanapes. They 
consented at last, with more tears than they 
shed when an elder son was sent to gaol for 
poaching, and the boy was perfectly happy in 
his life, and full of esprit de corps. It was this 
which had been wounded by having to sound 
retreat for “ the young gentlemen’s regiment,” 
the first time he served with it before the 
enemy, and he was also harassed by having 
completely lost sight of Master Tony. There 
had been some hard fighting before the back- 
ward movement began, and he had caught sight 
of him once, but not since. On the other hand, 
all the pulses of his village pride had been 
stirred by one or two visions of Master Jacka- 


JACKANAPES 


55 


napes whirling about on his wonderful horse. 
He had been easy to distinguish, since an eccen- 
tric blow had bared his head without hurting it, 
for his close golden mop of hair gleamed in the 
hot sunshine as brightly as the steel of the 
sword flashing round it. 

Of the missiles that fell pretty thickly, the 
Boy Trumpeter did not take much notice. 
First, one can’t attend to everything, and his 
hands were full. Secondly, one gets used to 
anything. Thirdly, experience soon teaches 
one, in spite of proverbs, how very few bullets 
find their billet. Far more unnerving is the 
mere suspicion of fear or even of anxiety in the 
human mass around you. The boy was begin- 
ning to wonder if there were any dark reason 
for the increasing pressure, and whether they 
would be allowed to move back more quickly, 
when the smoke in front lifted for a moment, 
and he could see the plain, and the enemy’s 
line some two hundred yards away. 


56 


JACKANAPES 


And across the plain between them he saw 
Master Jackanapes galloping alone at the top 
of Lollo’s speed, their faces to the enemy, his 
golden head at Lollo’s ear. 

But at this moment noise and smoke seemed 
to burst out on every side, the officer shouted 
to him to sound retire, and, between trumpeting 
and bumping about on his horse, he saw and 
heard no more of the incidents of his first 
battle. 

Tony Johnson was always unlucky with 
horses, from the days of the giddy-go-round 
onward. On this day — of all days in the 
year — his own horse was on the sick list, and 
he had to ride an. inferior, ill-conditioned beast, 
and fell off that, at the very moment when it 
was a matter of life or death to be able to ride 
away. The horse fell on him, but struggled up 
again, and Tony managed to keep hold of it. 
It was in trying to remount that he discovered, 
by helplessness and anguish, that one of his 



u 4 JACKANAPES ! GOD BLESS YOU ! IT’S MY LEFT LEG.* ** 










































































JACKANAPES 


57 


legs was crushed and broken, and that no feat 
of which he was master would get him into the 
saddle. Not able even to stand alone, awk- 
wardly, agonizingly unable to mount his restive 
horse, his life was yet so strong within him ! 
And on one side of him rolled the dust and 
smoke-cloud of his advancing foes, and on the 
other, that which covered his retreating friends. 

He turned one piteous gaze after them, with 
a bitter twinge, not of reproach, but of loneli- 
ness ; and then, dragging himself up by the 
side of his horse, he turned the other way and 
drew out his pistol, and waited for the end. 
Whether he waited seconds or minutes he 
never knew, before some one gripped him by 
the arm. 

“Jackanapes ! God bless you! It’s my left 
leg. If you could get me on — ” 

It was like Tony’s luck that his pistol went 
off at his horse’s tail, and made it plunge ; but 
Jackanapes threw him across the saddle. 


58 


JACKANAPES 


“ Hold on anyhow, and stick your spur in. 
I’ll lead him. Keep your head down, they’re 
firing high.” 

And Jackanapes laid his head down — to 
Lollo’s ear. 

It was when they were fairly off, that a sud- 
den upspringing of the enemy in all directions 
had made it necessary to change the gradual 
retirement of our force into as rapid a retreat 
as possible. And when Jackanapes became 
aware of this, and felt the lagging and swerv- 
ing of Tony’s horse, he began to wish he had 
thrown his friend across his own saddle, and 
left their lives to Lollo. 

When Tony became aware of it, several 
things came into his head. 1. That the dan- 
gers of their ride for life were now more than 
doubled. 2. That if Jackanapes and Lollo 
were not burdened with him they would un- 
doubtedly escape. 3. That Jackanapes’ life was 
infinitely valuable, and his — Tony’s — was not. 


JACKANAPES 


59 


4. That this — if lie could seize it — was the 
supremest of all the moments in which he had 
tried to assume the virtues which Jackanapes 
had by nature ; and that if he could be coura- 
geous and unselfish now — 

He caught at his own reins and spoke very 
loud : 

“ Jackanapes ! It won’t do. You and Lollo 
must go on. Tell the fellows I gave you back 
to them, with all my heart. Jackanapes, if you 
love me, leave me ! ” 

There was a daffodil light over the evening 
sky in front of them, and it shone strangely on 
Jackanapes’ hair and face. He turned with an 
odd look in his eyes that a vainer man than 
Tony Johnson might have taken for brotherly 
pride. Then he shook his mop, and laughed at 
him. 

“ Leave you f ” To save my skin ? No, 
Tony, not to save my soul ! ” 


CHAPTER V. 


Mr. Valiant summoned .• His will . His last words. 

Then, said he, “ I am going to my Father’s. . . . My 
sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, 
and my courage and skill to him that can get it.” . . . And 
as he went down deeper, he said, “ Grave, where is thy vic- 
tory?” 

So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on 
the other side Runyan’s Pilgrim's Progress. 

Coming out of a hospital tent, at head- 
quarters, the surgeon cannoned against, and 
rebounded from, another officer ; a sallow man, 
not young, with a face worn more by ungentle 
experiences than by age ; with weary eyes that 
kept their own counsel, iron-grey hair, and a 
mustache that was as if a raven had laid its 
wing across his lips and sealed them. 

“ Well ? ” 


60 


JACKANAPES 


61 


“ Beg pardon, Major. Didn’t see you. Oh, 
compound fracture and bruises, but it’s all 
right. He’ll pull through.” 

“ Thank God ! ” 

It was probably an involuntary expression, 
for prayer and praise were not much in the 
Major’s line, as a jerk of the surgeon’s head 
would have betrayed to an observer. He was 
a bright little man, with his feelings showing 
all over him, but with gallantry and contempt 
of death enough for both sides of his profes- 
sion ; who took a cool head, a white handker- 
chief, and a case of instruments, where other 
men went hot-blooded with weapons, and who 
was the biggest gossip, male or female, of the 
regiment. Not even the Major’s taciturnity 
daunted him. 

“ Didn’t think he’d as much pluck about 
him as he has. He’ll do all right if he 
doesn’t fret himself into a fever about poor 
Jackanapes.” 


62 


JACKANAPES 


“ Whom are you talking about ? ” asked the 
Major, hoarsely. 

“ Young Johnson. He — ” 

“ What about Jackanapes ? ” 

“ Don’t you know ? Sad business. Rode 
back for Johnson, and brought him in ; but, 
monstrous ill-luck, hit as they rode. Left 
lung — ” 

“ Will he recover ? ” 

“ No. Sad business. What a frame — what 
limbs — what health — and what good looks! 
Finest young fellow — ” 

“ Where is he ? ” 

“ In his own tent,” said the surgeon, sadly. 

The Major wheeled and left him. 

“ Can I do anything else for you ? ” 

“Nothing, thank you. Except — Major I 
wish I could get you to appreciate Johnson.” 

“ This is not an easy moment, Jackanapes.” 

“ Let me tell you, sir — he never will — that 


JACKANAPES 


63 


if he could have driven me from him, he would 
be lying yonder at this moment, and I should 
be safe and sound.” 

The Major laid his hand over his mouth, as 
if to keep back a wish he would have been 
ashamed to utter. 

“ I’ve known old Tony from a child. He’s a 
fool on impulse, a good man and a gentleman in 
principle. And he acts on principle, which it’s 
not every — some water, please ! Thank you, 
sir. It’s very hot, and yet one’s feet get un- 
commonly cold. Oh, thank you, thank you ! 
He’s no fire eater, but, he has a trained con- 
science and a tender heart, and he’ll do his duty 
when a braver and more selfish man might fail 
you. But he wants encouragement; and when 
I’m gone — ” 

“ He shall have encouragement. You have 
my word for it. Can I do nothing else ? ” 

“ Yes, Major. A favor.” 

“ Thank you, Jackanapes.” 


64 


JACKANAPES 


“ Be Lollo’s master, and love him as well as 
you can. He’s used to it.” 

“ Wouldn’t you rather Johnson had him ? ” 

The blue eyes twinkled in spite of mortal 
pain. 

“ Tony rides on principle, Major. His legs 
are bolsters, and will be to the end of the chap- 
ter. I couldn’t insult dear Lollo, but if you 
don’t care — ” 

“ Whilst I live — which will be longer than I 
desire or deserve — Lollo shall want nothing, 
but — you. J have too little tenderness for — 
my dear boy, you’re faint.' Can you spare me 
for a moment ? ” 

“ No, stay — Major ! ” 

“ What ? What ? ” 

“ My head drifts so — if you wouldn’t mind.” 

“ Yes ! Yes ! ” 

“ Say a prayer by me. Out loud, please, I 
am getting deaf.” 

“ My dearest Jackanapes — my dear boy — ” 


JACKANAPES 


65 


“One of the Church Prayers — Parade Ser- 
vice, you know — ” 

“I see. But the fact is — God forgive me, 
Jackanapes — I’m a very different sort of fellow 
to some of you youngsters. Look here, let me 
fetch — ” 

But Jackanapes’ hand was in his, and it 
wouldn’t let go. 

There was a brief and bitter silence. 

“ ’Pon my soul I can only remember the little 
one at the end.” 

“ Please,” whispered Jackanapes. 

Pressed by the conviction that what little he 
could do it was his duty to do, the Major — 
kneeling — bared his head, and spoke loudly, 
clearly, and very reverently : 

“ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ — ” 

Jackanapes moved his left hand to his right 
one, which still held the Major’s — 

“ — The love of God.” 

And with that — Jackanapes died. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Und so ist der blaue Himmel grosser als jedes Gewolk 
darin, und dauerhafter dazu. — Jean Paul Richter. 

Jackanapes’ death was sad news for the 
Goose Green, a sorrow just qualified by honor- 
able pride in his gallantry and devotion. Only 
the Cobbler dissented, but that was his way. 
He said he saw nothing in it but foolhardiness 
and vainglory. They might both have been 
killed, as easy as not, and then where would ye 
have been ? A man’s life was a man’s life, and 
one life was as good as another. No one would 
catch him throwing his away. And, for that 
matter, Mrs. Johnson could spare a child a 
great deal better than Miss Jessamine. 

But the parson preached Jackanapes’ funeral 
sermon on the text, “ Whosoever will save his 
L.ofC. 66 


JACKANAPES 


67 


life shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his 
life for My sake shall find it ; ” and all the 
village went, and wept to hear him. 

Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the 
Cobbler’s point of view. On the contrary, Mrs. 
Johnson said she never to her dying day should 
forget how, when she went to condole with her, 
the old lady came forward, with gentlewomanly 
self-control, and kissed her, and thanked God 
that her dear nephew’s effort had been blessed 
with success, and that this sad war had made no 
gap in her friend’s large and happy home circle. 

“ But she’s a noble, unselfish woman,” sobbed 
Mrs. Johnson, “ and she taught Jackanapes to 
be the same, and that’s how it is that my Tony 
has been spared to me. And it must be sheer 
goodness in Miss Jessamine, for what can she 
know of a mother’s feelings? And I’m sure 
most people seem to think that if you’ve a large 
family you don’t know one from another any 
more than they do, and that a lot of children 


68 


JACKANAPES 


are like a lot of store apples, if one’s taken it 
won’t be missed.” 

Lollo — the first Lollo, the Gypsy’s Lollo — 
very aged, draws Miss Jessamine’s bath-chair 
slowly up and down the Goose Green in the 
sunshine. 

The ex-Postman walks beside him, which 
Lollo tolerates to the level of his shoulder. If 
the Postman advances any nearer to his head, 
Lollo quickens his pace, and were the Postman 
to persist in the injudicious attempt, there is, as 
Miss Jessamine says, no knowing what might 
happen. 

In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss Jes- 
samine has borne her troubles “ wonderfully.” 
Indeed, to-day, some of the less delicate and 
less intimate of those who see everything from 
the upper windows, say (well behind her back) 
that “ the old lady seems quite lively with her 
military beaiix again.” 

The meaning of this is that Captain Johnson 



“ IT IS A TWOPENNY TRUMPET, BOUGHT YEARS AGO IN 
THE VILLAGE FAIR.” 



1 


JACKANAPES 


69 


is leaning over one side of her chair, whilst by 
the other bends a brother officer who is staying 
with him, and who has manifested an extraor- 
dinary interest in Lollo. He bends lower and 
lower, and Miss Jessamine calls to the Postman 
to request Lollo to be kind enough to stop, 
whilst she is fumbling for something which 
always hangs ' by her side, and has got en- 
tangled with her spectacles. 

It is a twopenny trumpet, bought years ago 
in the village fair, and over it she and Captain 
Johnson tell, as best they can, between them, 
the story of Jackanapes’ ride across the Goose 
Green ; and how he won Lollo — the Gypsy’s 
Lollo — the racer Lollo — dear Lollo — faithful 
Lollo — Lollo the never vanquished — Lollo the 
tender servant of his old mistress. And Lollo’s 
ears twitch at every mention of his name. 

The hearer does not speak, but he never 
moves his eyes from the trumpet, and when 
the tale is told, he lifts Miss Jessamine’s hand 


70 


JACKANAPES 


and presses his heavy black mustache in silence 
to her trembling fingers. 

The sun, setting gently to his rest, embroiders 
the sombre foliage of the oak-tree with threads 
of gold. The Grey Goose is sensible of an 
atmosphere of repose, and puts up one leg for 
the night. The grass glows with a more vivid 
green, and, in answer to a ringing call from 
Tony, his sisters fluttering over the daisies in 
pale-hued muslins, come out of their ever-open 
door, like pretty pigeons from a dove-cote. 

And, if the good gossips’ eyes do not deceive 
them, all the Miss Johnsons, and both the 
officers, go wandering off into the lanes, where 
bryony wreaths still twine about the brambles. 

A sorrowful story, and ending badly ? 

Nay, Jackanapes, for the end is not yet. 

A life wasted that might have been useful ? 

Men who have died for men, in all ages, for- 
give the thought ! 


JACKANAPES 


71 


There is a heritage of heroic example and 
noble obligation, not reckoned in the wealth of 
nations, but essential to a nation’s life ; the con- 
tempt of which, in any people, may, not slowly, 
mean even its commercial fall. 

Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the 
harvests of peace and progress, the fostering 
sunshine of health and happiness, and length 
of days in the land. 

But there be things — oh, sons of what has 
deserved the name of Great Britain, forget it 
not ! — “ the good of ” which and “ the use of ” 
which are beyond all calculation of worldly 
goods and earthly uses : things such as love, 
and honor, and the soul of man, which cannot 
be bought with a price, and which do not die 
with death. And they who would fain live 
happily evek after, should not leave these 
things out of the lessons of their lives. 


THE END. 







